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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (94271)	11/6/2008 9:01:05 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541556

My children have excellent values, Neeka. What they don't need is someone to affirm those values for them or insist others live by them to know they are valid and good. I am sorry yours feel belittled when others make different choices. Mine have no problem with gay marriage because they are free to marry whom they want. They have no problem with people praying, but they don't want to be forced to pray. They would never abort a child themselves, but they won't insist that a woman about whom they know nothing, be unable to make the best decision for her own life. I happen to think my boys are rather perfect also. I hope yours are tolerant enough to respect mine even if they have differing political beliefs.

To: Neeka who wrote (94271)	11/7/2008 8:10:43 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541556

You see.......they've felt the same way many conservatives have felt.........dis-respected and belittled. They wanted confirmation that what they believe is valid and good. I could feel the pain in your post when I first read it. I decided to reflect on it a while before responding rather than risk a visceral reply. Your reaction reflects the price we pay for the culture war--making personal values a political issue. When the tide turns against us, as in always does sooner or later, we lose not only the governmental initiatives that we had hoped to implement, we have the rug pulled out from under our very essence. How sad is that! It seems particularly sad to me that the cultural conflicts, which are basically a heartland vs cosmopolitan divergence, have been promoted as a party divergence. How sad is it that the dichotomy isn't even aptly applied! It seems to me that the introduction of culture war to the political disparity did a great disservice to this country. It was all so unnecessary. I feel for those experiencing values disruption now as I did for those who were distressed when the tide that included the "moral majority" with it's "family values" sent a political message that their values had become immoral and destructive to their families. They wanted confirmation that what they believe is valid and good. I assured them it was Naturally, mom is going to respond to her kids with reassurance. But I would suggest that reassurance be followed with a reevaluation of those values in two ways. One is whether the values are still valid or should be abandoned or dropped in priority. Hanging on to something just because you've always valued it doesn't seem very useful to me even when it doesn't introduce an unnecessary conflict into one's life. Things change and IMO it pays to be introspective and consider whether what we have held dear in the past still holds its value much the way one would revisit one's portfolio from time to time. The other way is to consider which of the retained values are appropriately subject to law and which are personal. Chastity, for example, is a personal value with no direct role in governance. Charity is a personal value with no direct role in governance. Diminution of such values can be detrimental to society and, as such, may influence the political debate. But the values themselves are still personal and we should be free to weight them as we choose.